{"id":6681,"date":"2010-02-01T11:42:07","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T16:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=6681"},"modified":"2010-02-01T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T16:42:07","slug":"real-life-dialogue-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/real-life-dialogue-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Real-Life Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The scene: the living room of a rustic but solidly built house in Vermont, with a gorgeous view spread beneath and a Green Mountainside above. It is a summer morning, and the sun is still low but bright and cheerful. The Guest and The Erstwhile Missus are there at the invitation of D—, a colleague of TEM; the two women teach at the same school, and <\/em>are in the kitchen talking. <\/em><\/p>\n

For their part, The Guest and G—, who is D—‘s husband, <\/em>met for the first time just a few minutes ago. They now <\/em>share a sofa in the living room. They have their feet propped up on a rugged coffee table which G— himself constructed, starting with actual <\/em>logs and, conceivably, a blacksmith’s forge and anvil. A former industrial chemist in a Pennsylvania city, he moved to Vermont to be with D—; having utterly changed careers, he has become a successful carpenter. He built this very house, as well as its two predecessors. His whole demeanor seems that of New Hampshire (The Granite State) rather than Vermont: craggy. On the TV over the fireplace, a man in a threadbare suit and thin gray carefully-combed hair reads agricultural news from a sheaf of paper: news not just of weather but of livestock auctions, grain prices, and government-subsidy deadlines.<\/em><\/p>\n

In short, The Guest is on alien ground, apparently having shared not a single life experience with G— but eager, for TEM’s sake, to ingratiate himself in some way. <\/em><\/p>\n

Guest:<\/strong> You know, I’ve always wanted to live in Vermont.<\/p>\n

G— is silent for a long moment, extending through the end of the segment on TV, several commercials, and the start of a new segment.<\/em><\/p>\n

G—:<\/strong> (immobile, arms folded, gaze fixed on TV) <\/em>Why’d you want to live in Vermont?<\/p>\n

Guest:<\/strong> Oh jeez, it’s just beautiful here. I mean, look outside right now. (He gestures vaguely at the window.)<\/em> Seriously — could anything be more beautiful than that? (He pauses to give G— a chance to interject something, anything.) <\/em>In the fall, oh my gosh, it’s beautiful in the fall. (Another pause.)<\/em> And if I had enough books and a house as well-built as this one, why, I bet I could be happy living up here my whole life.<\/p>\n

Another protracted silence. Another commercial break.<\/em><\/p>\n

G—:<\/strong> You ski?<\/p>\n

Guest:<\/strong> (speaking rapidly) <\/em>Nope — never been on skis in my life! Actually now that I think about it snow skiing, water skiing no difference, never even held a ski in my hands, actually I’m not very athletic at all, no sir.<\/p>\n

The silence oppresses. From the kitchen, sounds of female laughter and the clatter of tableware. The newsreader on TV seems to have started all over again: temperature and precipitation expectations for the day, records of past years—<\/em><\/p>\n

G—:<\/strong> (only his mouth moving) <\/em>So why’d you want to live in Vermont?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scene: the living room of a rustic but solidly built house in Vermont, with a gorgeous view spread beneath and a Green Mountainside above. It is a summer morning, and the sun is still low but bright and cheerful. The Guest and The Erstwhile Missus are there at the invitation of D—, a colleague […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,38,1235,713],"tags":[933,1413,1616,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-6681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-backwards","8":"category-real-life-dialogue-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-humor-writing_cat","10":"tag-real-life-dialogue","11":"tag-conversation","12":"tag-vermont","13":"tag-fish-out-of-water","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1JL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6681"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6693,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681\/revisions\/6693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}